Department of Agriculture April 26, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is extending the comment period for the proposed rulemaking ``Modernization of Poultry Slaughter Inspection'' and responding to questions and addressing issues that have been raised concerning the proposed rule. The comment period was scheduled to close on April 26, 2012. During the comment period, a coalition of consumer advocacy organizations and two trade associations representing the poultry industry asked that FSIS clarify certain aspects of the proposed rule to help inform their comments. This document summarizes the issues raised by these groups and FSIS's response. FSIS is also soliciting additional comments on how it should implement the final rule resulting from the proposal and requesting available data on any worker safety issues associated with increased line speeds. FSIS received a request to hold a public technical meeting on the proposed rule. FSIS does not believe that such a meeting would be useful. The Agency will, however, assess public understanding of the proposed rule in connection with its review and evaluation of the comments submitted and will respond as appropriate.

Notice is hereby given that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is revising two Privacy Act (PA) systems of records and deleting two PA systems of records maintained by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).